


I Know Your Name

by dorkpatroller



Category: Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: M/M, Modern AU, Time Shenanigans, Your Name AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-16
Updated: 2019-06-16
Packaged: 2020-05-13 03:26:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,068
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19242853
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dorkpatroller/pseuds/dorkpatroller
Summary: Frederick has never been in this situation before. Waking up in someone else's body, in someone else's life, how do you rectify that situation? But the more he switches bodies with Chrom, the more he learns about him. The more he learns to love him. For the Chrom S Support Zine!





	I Know Your Name

They say that when your soulmate needs you, not even the bounds of time or space can stop you.

Frederick usually wakes to an alarm. He doesn’t particularly need it. He’s been rising at seven o’clock sharp every day for his entire life. Even so, it’s nice to wake up and hear the local news broadcasts while he starts his day. Today should be no different, but for whatever reason it is.

He wakes up and finds himself uncomfortably warm, first of all. Maybe his air conditioner is acting up--perhaps it needed a new filter after all--but it’s not as cool as he would like. But then he opens his eyes, really opens his eyes, and there’s much more to worry about than an air conditioner. 

Where am I? He wonders to himself. He’s not at home, that’s for certain. This room is a bedroom, but it’s not his. There’s a desk in the corner, what looks to be a coat of arms on the wall, and decor that’s stylistic and dated. 

He stands up and that's when he really notices it: he's not standing at his normal height. It has him patting himself down and pushing a hand through his hair. The length isn't right there, either. He knits his brows together and wanders to a full-length mirror sitting in a stand across the room.

The man staring back at him has blue hair and bright eyes. He's a little younger than Frederick is by a couple of years. He leans forward and combs his fingers through his hair again. He's… someone else? "I'm dreaming," Frederick says. He must be because there's just no other explanation.

The door to the bedroom creaks open and he turns around to see who’s here. Standing in the doorway a young woman with bouncy blonde pigtails peeks in. Her face falls when she sees him. “What? Chrom! You’re still in your pajamas? Come on lazy bones, Robin is waiting for us! I’ll wait right out here.” She pulls the door closed.

Chrom. Is that his name? It must be his name. Frederick is having a dream where he’s a young man named Chrom and he’s got to go meet this Robin for something or other. The first step is to get dressed, he supposes. He wanders to the wardrobe and pulls at the first thing he sees. The problem is it’s absurd. Then so is the next thing he finds--why is he missing so many sleeves?--until Frederick pushes an exasperated sigh through his lips. Who taught this man how to dress? He has a terrible sense of fashion.

In the darkest depths of that wardrobe, Frederick finally finds a sensible set of clothes. He dresses quickly and runs his fingers through his hair to straighten it. He's not quite sure how this Chrom fellow wears it, but it will have to do. The blonde girl is still waiting for him in the hallway and she looks at him and barks out a laugh before she can think to cover her mouth.

“Pfft… Chrom, what are you wearing? You look so… stiff.” 

Frederick rolls his eyes and folds his hands behind the small of his back. Or--well--Chrom’s back. “I believe you said we had a meeting to attend?” 

She snorts out another laugh, but she begins to walk forward and away from his room anyway. “Okay, Mr. Formal. Did you get enough sleep last night or did you just finally lose your last marble?"

They bicker on their way down the hall, with Frederick’s frown raising into a gentle smile for a moment. He never had a sister to bicker with, but if Chrom does he should consider himself lucky. In any case, they arrive in the meeting room and he looks up to see a young man dressed in robes. 

He looks accurately like a mage you would see in a movie or T.V. Series. The robes are long and baggy and have odd, almost otherworldly designs on them. This is the Robin who was waiting for them? 

Laid out in front of him Robin has a table with maps and scrolls rolled out on it. The corners are held down with books to keep them flat and there are pieces that look like chess markers on them. He might think it was a game if it didn’t feel awkward and heavily real. Frederick looks up from the map and at Robin just in time to see him dip his head to one side. 

"Nice outfit, Chrom," Robin says with a chuckle. "Are you ready? Here, I need to point out some landmarks here too you." He doesn't even wait for Frederick and Lissa to walk closer, but instead, he starts dragging his finger along the map. "See this here? This mountain range can help us get around the obvious trap they'll have waiting for us at the valley. And I'm certain they'll have guards and plans up in the mountain passes as well, but if we just…"

Frederick listens in fascination. Robin weaves him a strategy to get around enemy troops and the more that he says the more it sounds like they must be very deep in the middle of a war. Eventually, Robin glances up at him and smiles. "Well? What do you think?"

“I,” Frederick begins. He doesn’t know what to say. It sounds promising enough. 

Lissa throws her arms in the air triumphantly. “It’s awesome! This is such a great plan--they’re not going to know what hit them! We’re gonna kick some serious booty!”

Frederick watches her with alarm. She’s barely more than a child. Is she going to the battlefield, too?

»»————-　 ♡ 　————-««

When he opens his eyes Frederick is in his own bed. He takes in a deep breath and lays his arm over his head to fight away the light coming in through the curtains. It was just a dream. Of course it was, he knew it was the whole time, but he’s never had such a vivid dream before. 

He gets up and dresses. Brushes his teeth, washes his face, and he heads downstairs to make toast. He lives alone in this house, but it’s a proper home that could easily fit an average family. He bought the house years ago. He had no reason not to, and he still holds out hope that eventually he’ll have a family to fill it. For now, however, he eats his toast and drinks his coffee alone at his breakfast table. 

By the time he’s walking into work he still can’t shake the dream he had. It’s a shame because he can only remember bits and pieces of it, the names of the people involved and even what they were calling him are all hazy. But he pushes the door of the library open and heads to the counter to begin his day. 

He picks up a stack of books and it’s only then that he realizes his coworker, Cherche, is staring at him like he’s insane. “What are you doing?” She asks him.

He sets the books down by his work station and holds up the first one. "This shipment hasn't been checked in yet," he answers. "May I help you?"

“Uh, yeah,” Cherche swivels around in her chair to face him and points the eraser end of a yellow pencil at him. “Are you seriously going to pretend you didn’t lose your mind yesterday?” She taps her fingertips with the pencil while she counts off the alleged oddities. “You didn’t show up for your shift--which is fine, Fred, don’t get me wrong, you work way too hard. You can take time off when you need it. But you didn’t even call.” 

It’s absurd. Frederick never misses his shifts, and wouldn’t even if he had the plague. He nearly never gets sick, he has excellent hygiene, and he would know if he missed work. “Yesterday was Sunday.” 

“Uh, no sir. Yesterday was Monday. See? Look at your phone.” Frederick rolls his eyes, but when he looks at his phone the date does say it’s Tuesday. How is that possible? How could he miss an entire day of his life? Cherche clears her throat. “Anyway, you didn’t call so naturally I assumed you had died and I called to check on you. I was so glad you answered the phone! But you had no idea who I was or where you were… but when I asked if I should come by and check on you, you told me you just needed to rest. Are you okay?” 

“I’m… fine.” Frederick did not do all of that. He would remember. Wouldn’t he? But he doesn’t remember anything at all, so he simply apologizes for worrying her.

»»————-　 ♡ 　————-««

Frederick’s eyes snap open and he’s in pain. Sharp, agonizing pain shooting up from his toes up to his head and back. He jolts, but that blonde girl from his last dream gasps and pushes him back. “Chrom!” She gasps. “Sit back, you’re still hurt, alright?” 

“I can tell,” He grunts. But Lissa’s name comes back to him easily now that he’s Chrom again and not himself. “What happened?” She doesn’t answer him though. She picks up a rod with a bauble at the end and it lights up… and suddenly he’s in a lot less pain. 

“Okay,” Lissa says. “I’m going to go get Robin, he wanted me to tell him as soon as you were awake. Don’t you dare move, I’ll be right back.” 

She leaves and Frederick lays back into the cot he’s propped on. Who is Chrom? This is the second time he’s had a dream where he’s Chrom, and he simply wants to understand it. There has to be some significance for his psyche to be giving him dreams like this, right? Or maybe it’s just stress at work, he’s sure that could be blamed for just about anything. 

He’s not feeling particularly stressed, though. He has a good staff, he’s paid well enough… Oh, but Robin and Lissa come back into the tent. Robin settles down near his side while Lissa pours Frederick a glass of water. She also hands him a piece of bread with a smear of honey on it. 

Robin certainly looks battered too. He just sits down near the cot and frowns for a solid ten seconds. “The enemy knew our every move,” he says. He looks incredibly upset. “It’s like they had eyes on the inside--how could someone have seen my notes?--This is my fault, and we almost lost you because of it.” 

“This is not your fault,” Frederick says. Well, he’s not sure. It very well could be, but he would like to think that’s what Chrom would say. They must be friends, right? Robin smiles weakly and shakes his head. 

“It is, but it won’t happen again. Next time I’ll be ready. I’m already working on a counter maneuver, and we can still win this if we beat them to the pas……..Ch...rom…?” All of his words blur into nothingness. Frederick’s head feels light. Maybe he’s not done sleeping after all. “Lissa……..hurt…..let...rest.” 

»»————-　 ♡ 　————-««

Frederick opens his eyes and he sees Chrom’s room. He’s not startled by it, not anymore. He just gets up, gets dressed, and starts his day. Today he does some sword training, which he finds he actually enjoys. He bathes, he eats, and Robin asks him to help put away a weapon order. 

This has been happening too often. He thought it was a dream at first, but every time he wakes up the next day he’s missed an entire day of his life. He’s not dreaming that he’s Chrom, he’s switching bodies and lives with him entirely. 

Thankfully Chrom isn’t creating too much chaos in his body. He hasn’t figured out the decimal system at the library yet, but he’s been going to work and doing his best. Book shipments are similar to weapons orders, it turns out. 

Since it's been happening so often, they've been leaving each other notes. Chrom asks so many questions that he always wants to be answered. What is this? What does that do? Is this really our future?

It started out that way, anyway, but over time the questions have morphed into something more general. How was your day? What sort of things interest you? Are you going to marry Cherche?

He’s gotten to know Chrom in a way that feels very intimate, by sharing a body with him and also by writing back and forth with him. When he goes to bed at night he never knows if he’s going to wake up as Frederick or as Chrom in the morning. All he knows is that one mystery, above all, tugs at the corners of his brain. 

Where is the Halidom?

»»————-　 ♡ 　————-««

The last time Chrom was in his body he tried to bake cookies for Frederick because he “was bored.” He did alright for the first time he’s ever used an electric oven, but it’s horrifying to imagine he could have burned the house down. 

If you’re bored, read a book. Frederick wrote to him. They've been sharing a journal. One here and one in the past. They write a diary in it each night before bed. That way Frederick always knows anything he may need to when he's posing as Chrom, and Chrom always knows what appointments and events are going on at the library. It also lets them have a conversation with each other, and it brings a lot of their personalities forward.  

When he’s in Chrom’s body, above all, Frederick takes detailed notes of Robin’s plans. Chrom is a prince and he is at war. He can’t afford to be misinformed. 

Still, it's an oddity to be in this situation. It feels like Fred knows Chrom like they've met in person. It feels like they're friends, or even something more. He's seen such an intimate part of Chrom by walking in his shoes. He knows his family and his friends and his trials. His upcoming role as Exalt, his losses… Frederic often finds himself daydreaming of him in his free time, now, or tracing his brand into the margins of his work.

It’s irrational to be this distracted of course, but maybe his distraction at work is why he stumbles across a book labeled The Lost Halidom. He sets the other books he’s meant to replace down so he can pick it up and thumb through it. 

It details the fall of the Halidom of Ylisse, and the war waged between Ylisstol and Plegia. It tells the tale that Prince Chrom was ultimately betrayed by his own best friend, and in the middle of a turning-point battle he was murdered in cold blood.

Frederick startles when he notices a drop of water hit the page of the book. He looks up at the ceiling, but it’s only a breath before he realizes it was his own tear. He scrubs any lingering tears away with the back of his sleeve before anyone can catch him crying over a history book, and he claps the book shut in his hand. 

Of course that's why he can't remember Ylisse. The Halidom fell. It was absorbed by Plegia and Regna Ferox, and eventually other countries formed as well. He thinks he knew that; he's sure he remembers it from history classes when he was young. It's across the ocean from where he lives, here in Rosanne.

If Robin is the one who betrays Chrom, it’s no wonder why information on tactics keeps leaking. Their own tactician is the one leaking it. But he seems very genuine, and it’s hard to be wary of him. Then again, history doesn’t lie. Or maybe history can be rewritten?

Frederick takes the history book home with him that night. He takes all the books he can find on Ylisse, actually, and he stays up half the night reading them before he falls asleep at his desk. 

»»————-　 ♡ 　————-««

Chrom opens his eyes and groans. His back is stiff, and he’s bent over a table. No, a desk. Frederick’s desk. He blinks a few times but then he stretches his arms out above his head to try and ease the pain in his back. “Not sure why you thought you had to sleep at the desk, Freddy,” Chrom mumbles. “But yeowch.” 

The good news comes with the realization that today is Sunday. No work at the library, today, and Chrom is welcome to crawl right into bed. And he does, because it’s quite early and he’s uncomfortable… so he goes right back to sleep. 

It’s a handful of hours later when he jolts awake. They’re supposed to march on Validar today. They’re supposed to face Validar today. Frederick is obviously in his body, if Chrom is here and in his, and that has never happened before. He’s not a properly trained swordsman, even if he’s trying. 

He’ll die, Chrom realizes. He doesn’t know what to do about it either. He’s never been able to switch places with Frederick on command, it just sort of… happened. It was fun to get to know him, to learn to care about him, but this is scary. Half of him wants to cry. Why should Frederick die, simply because fate switched them today? And what’s worse is he’ll die in Chrom’s body. Does that mean Chrom will die, or Frederick? Will Chrom be trapped here for the rest of his life?

He starts to open the curtains. He thinks staring out the window might clear his head, but he stops when he notices the journal where they keep their diary is still open at the desk. He pulls out the chair and sits down. 

There are detailed notes all over this desk. Journals Chrom has never seen before, and most of them detailing things like war strategy. He’s concerned at first, but then he glances at the open history book and his heart sinks. 

Do they lose this war?

In the diary, he looks over Frederick's notes. It doesn't make him feel any better. If you’re reading this, we’ve switched places just in time. I’ve figured out what went wrong. I believe Robin is possessed. I think I can fix this before the final battle approaches. I won’t let you die.

Chrom puts his face in his hands. “The problem with that is that the final battle is already here, Fred,” he mumbles. “Naga help us, he’s not ready for battle.” 

He has to switch them back, of course. Chrom hasn’t known Frederick more than a month at most, but the connection he has with him is out of this world. He knows everything about him! The things he enjoys, the shape of his body, the tone of his voice. It’s like he’s met him in person, even if by all means, technically he hasn’t. And he cares about him. He cares about him so much. 

He has to force them to switch back. At first, he tries sleeping. He wants to sleep, that is, because that is the trigger as far as he knows. The only problem is he has no way of knowing if that's actually the cause. That doesn't work, and so he spends his entire day pacing and praying and reading over the notes and books.

Chrom has never been surer of anything than he is about this. He would rather die than let Frederick die in his place. If that's the way history unfolds, that's the way it will be.

It doesn't work. The day bleeds into the night and Chrom can do nothing except lay in Frederick's bed, breathe in the way he smells, and cling to a letter he wrote for him.

»»————-　 ♡ 　————-««

Frederick’s eyes open and he gasps. He’s in his bed. It doesn’t even make sense, moments ago he was awake. He was in Chrom’s body, he was confronting Robin about his possession. Now he’s here, in his own body, and his cheeks and pillow are damp. 

When he sits up his head is heavy and hurts. Like it feels after a long day of crying, really. He’s not sure why, though. He’s not convinced Chrom would have a reason to cry, after all. He shifts, but he hears the rumple of paper underneath him. 

There’s a note, there in the bed. He must have been laying on top of it… but it’s in Chrom’s handwriting. 

I hope you’re reading this. I need you to live to read this. I found all of your notes, and I’m trying my hardest to switch us back in time to save you. I can’t let you die trying to save me. I love you.

Oh. 

Frederick rereads the note once, twice, and a third time. After that, he pinches the bridge of his nose and sighs. Chrom found a way to switch them back. He must have… and now Frederick has no way of knowing if he can save him or not.

It’s devastating, because obviously Frederick loves Chrom, too. 

»»————-　 ♡ 　————-««

Frederick would have really liked to know what happened to Chrom, after that, but he never switched places with Chrom again. Instead, he woke up a few hours later, after having cried himself to sleep, completely perplexed. There was a blank piece of paper stained with tears in his hand, and there were history books on his desk, but he still isn't sure why.

His journal was also open wide on his desk, right to the middle of the book, but there was nothing written in it. Frederick doesn’t use that journal, now, but when he glances at it on the shelf he feels an odd sense of deja vu. 

His life goes on as normal. He continues working in the library, he keeps living his life as he always has. He’s never felt lonely in his big, empty house before… but lately he does. He couldn’t explain the reason if he tried. 

A month passes by like a breeze. He’s putting away books at work and he picks up one of the history books that he found on his desk that day. He flips it open again. The center documents the life of Chrom, who ruled as Exalt after winning the war with Plegia. There are paintings of him with his daughter, and they’re both lovely enough to look at. 

When he looks at that painting he almost thinks he feels sad. There’s something lingering there, on his mind. Something that makes him feel like he’s forgetting something, something incredibly important… but he can’t say what it is. He puts the book back on the shelf. 

On his walk home that day he passes a couple of people. They’re a bit younger than him, men in their early twenties. They’re probably college students. One of them has a hood up over his head against the wind, and he’s got headphones hanging down from it. Only one of them is actually in his ear. The other has blue hair and a hoodie with the sleeves ripped off like he thinks it’s cool. He must not be afraid of the chilly weather. 

Frederick walks right past them, but a few paces away he stops. He doesn’t turn around, doesn’t move… but he feels like he just walked past someone he knows. Someone he cares about. 

Chrom turns his head and looks right at him. Frederick stares at him as well. Robin tilts his head, uncertainly. “Are you okay?” He asks his friend. 

Chrom doesn't answer him, but in fact, he sprints to Frederick. He runs close enough that Frederick almost takes a step back, but he can't. Chrom curls his fingers up into the long sleeve of his shirt.

Chrom looks at Frederick like he’s in a daze. “Ch--Chrom?” Frederick asks, softly. Uncertainly. He’s not sure if he’s excited or terrified that he knows who this is. But Chrom keeps staring at him, and he nods his head. 

“Yeah,” he says. His voice sounds almost choked up. Frederick doesn’t even know what to say. Before two minutes ago when he walked by, he’d forgotten everything. Now he still isn’t sure, but he distinctly feels like they’ve met before. 

“My name is,” He begins. Chrom shakes his head and cuts him off. 

“I know. Fred. Your name is Frederick. I know your name.” 

»»————-　 ♡ 　————-««

 


End file.
